To keep the AI juggernaut rolling ever forward, you might think that the biggest companies in artificial intelligence desperately need ridiculous numbers of AI GPUs. According to Microsoft, though, the issue isn't a compute or hardware limit, it's that there's not enough electrical power to run it all. And if that's the case, it raises the question as to how Amazon is going to cope now that it's signed a $38 billion, multi-year deal with OpenAI to give the company access to its servers.
It was Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, who made the point about insufficient power in a 70-minute interview (via Tom's Hardware) with YouTube channel Bg2 Pod, alongside OpenAI's boss, Sam Altman. It came about when the interview's host, Brad Gerstner, mentioned that Nvidia's Jen-Hsun Huang had said that there was almost zero chance of there being a 'compute glut' within the next couple of years (and by that, he means an excess of AI GPUs).